Fable: The Virus
by Destroying Death Itself
Summary: 500 years after the events of the tattered spire, Tuloze, a boy of hero descent, finds himself trying to save the hero race from mass murder as the goverment think of them as a plague.
1. Chapter 1

**FABLE: THE VIRUS**

**Chapter 1**

The skyscrapers of Bowerstone South pierced the daytime smog which covered the land. A crumpled piece of newspaper slowly blew its way across the street bearing the title, "**THE NEW KINGDOM AWAITS**". As the first of the people spilled their way onto the streets a screen flickered on the broadest building in the centre of town. On the screen was a middle-aged man bearing a pencil shaped moustache wearing a black pinstripe suit.

"Welcome people to my announcement. I am dearly sorry for the early morning wake up call but this is an issue that is important to address right away. For many years we the people have been under the delusion that heroes are here to save us, for many years we have relied heavily upon the saviour of heroes, well that time is no more! I feel that these heroes are a disease that should be destroyed at the source, a disease which is plaguing our lives, contaminating our drinking water and destroying our beautiful city. This message must be spread to every person bearing a scrap of hero blood, you will all be rounded up to have your name signed onto a register. If you fail to be obedient, we have certain ways of denying your existence. For us, the true blooded people, The new kingdom of Albion awaits us, she awaits us all who are of true blood and noble heritage, thank you for listening to me. For all you heroes, your name will have to be signed in the watchtower before next Friday or else..." The man gave a scanning look from the screen down towards the streets, before flickering out and leaving complete darkness in the section that was filled with his beetroot coloured face.

With a sudden breath Tuloze awoke from his heavy sleep with an annoying ringing in his ears. Voices faded in and out of his head as he opened his curtain to reveal a bunch of youths hanging around outside his house. He scratched his bleach blonde hair absently mindedly before diving for his wardrobe, withdrawing some clothes as hastily as he could. The front door flung open as he bounded down the stairs and the youths all started him in the face, the tallest one with the biggest frame talked first, revealing his unusually spotty face as he did so.

"So, have you heard about the heroes then you freak!"

Upon the last word he spat towards Tuloze's feet, the next one in the line spoke, a very short kid with spiked brown hair opened his mouth.

"Yeah freaks like you have to sing a register."

The kids laughed at Tuloze who felt his anger bubbling away inside of him, see he was not a normal kid, he was the last in a long line of heroes, some claimed that his family held the greatest hero of all time, the man who defeated Jack of Blades, however this was a new generation and heritage didn't matter any more.

"Stan I suggest you shut your face if you know what is good for you."

Tuloze sneered up at the tall kid as the words ushered from his mouth.

"What the hell you gonna' do freak show" Stan responded.

"Yeah freak show, what are you gonna do."

The sudden emphasis on the word "are" made Tuloze lose his rage as he swung his arms forward grabbing Stan by the throat.

"I suggest you leave me alone Stan."

Tuloze's grip tightened around Stan's throat, before finally letting go. The youths ran from the house throwing abuse at Tuloze.

Tuloze was a solitary boy, a boy who had no family and no friends. He was an average height with abnormal powers, from birth he had known he was different but he never could harness his powers. Slowly but carefully he picked up a shard of glass off the floor and stared at his reflection in it. He ran one of his hands slowly over his face, he wasn't any different from them, not in structure, not in age however he was more different than you can imagine. The glass cracked against the wall as he launched it across the hall, he stood up with a sudden determination. He walked to his room and when he emerged he had a rucksack strapped to his back and he left the house and walked down the street.

He reached the town centre with relative ease as no-one else had an inkling that he was a hero. He saw the watchtower and walked towards it and spat at the ground near it before striding towards the bridge. The sun finally broke through the smog enough to spotlight his exit from Bowerstone, his final goodbye to the city he grew up in, this he felt was his destiny, it was his life to bring back the heroes.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2  
**

Friday past in a blaze as Tuloze kept walking from his home. This was his fourth day of walking and slowly he was running out of food, his journey had only taking him to Bower Lake. Out of pure exhaustion and dehydration he collapsed onto the field around him, drifting in and out of conciousness he heard voices.

"That's one of them city folk that is."

"Yeah but I don't fink Gandula would be too 'appy if we brought him in."

"We can't leave him our here though can we?"

"True that is..." The man paused for a few seconds "Never mind what she says, he needs shelter and warmth, and a ruddy good clean."

A sense of warmth held Tuloze to his resting position, he was in a gypsy camp, one of the few which remained. As his eyes flickered open he stared up at a rather formidable woman. She was at least seven foot tall with extremely large muscles, she had long braided hair, her figure blocked the light from the entrance way.

"So you've finally woke up then, I am Gandula, although some prefer to call me by the name Hammer." Tuloze's eyes scanned up to her hair and realised it was bright white, she looked old somehow, yet so full of life. "These last two centuries have been hell for us heroes, the three before that was a dawdle." She gave Tuloze a scanning look as though expecting him to stop her mid-sentence. "I tell you what that Mr Cuzton, leader of Bowerstone and his bloody New Kingdom rubbish, it is just atrocious."

"You...you are a hero!?" Finally Tuloze found his voice.

"Yes and if it weren't for me, Sparrow, Garth and Reaver, you wouldn't be around dear boy. And to be perfectly honest you would've been better off being born 3 centuries ago, well not that it was your choice." Hammer nodded her head as though agreeing with her own sentence.

"Hammer. I need some help. I need to make the heroes respected again."

"You know that, that is nigh on impossible. I am afraid I cannot help, and not through not wanting to either. I am too old for this stuff, I need to look after my kids. Tomorrow morning I want you to go." Tuloze was crestfallen, as Gandula left he punched the wall of the caravan with as much force as possible, leaving quite a large dent in it.

The next morning Tuloze left before the crack of dawn, picking up a few guns and rounds to take with him for his journey, along with stacking up on provisions. His walk had taken him to a small river, near the edge of the mountain range, he knew where he wanted to go, Oakfield, a peaceful village, which decided long ago not to follow the ways of the political parties. He heard a noise, something was moving near him and with a sudden sharpness he turned on the spot to find himself looking up at a thin, handsome man, with jet black hair which was slicked back.

"You've been hard to track down boy." He leapt gracefully from the rock, and stood to his full height standing above Tuloze.

"What do you mean by track down?"

"Well boy I'm afraid that your name wasn't found on the register, and as you know that is now illegal."

"I'm going to Oakfield, a place that isn't governed by your laws, and you know what, I'm going to bring down the government!" The anger in Tuloze boiled out staring at the man.

"You heroes are pathetic." The statement ended with a gunshot.

Smoke covered a blue aura in front of Tuloze, who was unsure what had just happened. As the smoke cleared the man was sneering at him before putting his gun back into his holster.

"You know what boy, you are lucky." He turned his back on Tuloze, "Oh I'm Kiernan by the way." and with that he leaped away before disappearing. The blue aura faded and a bullet dropped from the air in front of him.

The sun bore down on the beautiful village of Oakfield, always a warm place by the seaside. The path into it lead past a small shop, and there straight ahead of him was a tavern, a place for him to sleep. There was something unnerving about the lack of people in the village, it looked desolate.

"They wouldn't abide by our laws so we had them removed." Kiernan's voice issued behind him as he stood on top of the small shop which he had looked at seconds before. "To be honest this a rather good place, a holiday home for us officials."

"You bastard!" Tuloze jumped to the building withdrawing the gun as he did and fired 2 rounds at Kiernan.

"Not quick enough." Tuloze had a brief glimpse of Kiernan's smug face before being hit in the back and sent to the ground of the building. The attack started again with Tuloze firing shots at Kiernan who caught each bullet as it flew towards him.

"To get past us, you'll need to have more skill than this." Kiernan smirked and a bullet flew towards his arm too fast for him to move but again somehow he caught it. "Some of us Tuloze have secrets, secrets that we can pass onto you." Tuloze stopped firing and dropped his gun only to look up and see a foot hit him squarely in the nose.

"One of the rules is to never let your guard drop. I could train you if you want."

"Over my dead body!" Tuloze rolled over and leaped to his feet charging at Kiernan who again showed surprising speed in taking him down.

"You need the training to get past the guards in Bowerstone, they've all been trained to take heroes down, they have strength, as far as I'm aware I'm the only man who can get past them." Kiernan stretched his hand out to help Tuloze up. "I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help you." Tuloze accepted the hand but in an instant they were somewhere different.


End file.
